This dog truly fascinates me.

A Buddy post again, but sans photos, so all you dog porn folks can go back to whatever it is that gets you through (and, no, I don't want to know).

That said, I know Mr. B (the name he now insists on) is a mere canine and that I, like most pet owners, tend to attribute to him human characteristics and behavior. Still...

One of Buddy's favorite places is on the couch and it has been a movable feast during his time here. I actually prefer the far end (from the perspective of the desk where I'm sitting), which is near the window. In the colder months, though, the windows allow a whole lotta cold air to flow into the room and I thus relocate to the closer end for the winter months.

Buddy accepted that without question through the final months of last winter (when he first arrived) and again this winter, after I made the switch late last November. Of late, however, starting with Daylight Savings Time, he has relocated himself on the near end of the couch whenever the opportunity presents itself (i.e., when I get up from my seat).

So tonight I switched things around and he seems happy.

Also, I was taken with, and wrote about, his penchant to run as fast as he can, rather than walk, when we went out for "walks" immediately after his arrival. There were several people in the apartment complex who came to know him as "that cute little do who runs everywhere." That disappeared as the summer came on and through the winter months. Now? A mad dash for someplace else as soon as we step out the front door.

And so we run, and he seems happy.

He has always been very particular about strange things. He will not, if he can avoid it, step on the doormat outside the front door going in or out, squeezing himself over into the corner to try and avoid touching it. He will periodically stop dead in mid-walk/run and stare off into space. Most of all, to the extent possible, he avoided stepping on grass for the first few months here and now only reluctantly accepts it under his feet when doing his leg-lifting/unattractively squatting "business."

Except that now, when let out the back door at night do said business, he is wont to run over to any neighbor's doorway where these is a light. Granted, this mostly means the folks to the right who have a cute little Shih-Tzu of their own, girl variety, but it is not exclusively so. And of late, he pesters me during the day to let him out for a while, often sitting on the porch and just watching nothing happen, but sometimes wandering about. All of this was anathema to him a year ago.

Plus there's that thing he does where he lies quietly on the floor for an hour or more, not sleeping and giving the impression he is in deep thought.

I mean,anthropomorphizing or not, this animal appears to think more deeply and adjust his life accordingly than a goodly number of people I know.

 And he seems happy, which puts him another rung up on them.